SPINDLERUV MLYN, CZECH REPUBLIC — Vail’s Lindsey Vonn skied her way back into overall title contention today.
Vonn placed third in the giant slalom, reducing the overall World Cup lead of her major rival and friend Riesch from 96 to 38 points. There are still five more races this season.
Riesch lost her balance and almost missed a gate halfway through the second run before she returned to finish the race in 29th place.
Vonn’s third-place finish — her first-ever trip to the podium in giant slalom — was a huge boost. Her chances of winning her fourth straight overall title have suddenly have gone from slim to realistic.
“I’ve been trying my whole career to get to top three in a giant slalom. It means a lot to me. It feels amazing,” Vonn said. “It couldn’t be at a better time.”
The previous best GS result for Vonn was the fourth place at Aspen, in 2008.
“I just tried to ski the best I can in both runs,” she said. “It was the first time I finally had two clean runs from the top to the bottom.”
After placing eighth in the first run, Vonn was cruising down the course in the second, clocking the second-best time of 1:09.04 for a combined 2:16.67.
Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg won the giant slalom. It was the third career victory for Rebensburg, who took the lead after the opening run and was also fastest in the second on the Black course to finish with a combined time of 2 minutes, 15.22 seconds. The win moved her to the top of the discipline standings.
With one more giant slalom to come, Rebensburg leads with 435 points. Tessa Worley of France, who was leading before Friday’s race with 358 points, skied off in the first round and is second.
Denise Karbon of Italy was second, 1.26 seconds behind and three-time overall defending champion Vonn was 1.45 back in third for her first GS podium.
Riesch lost her balance and almost missed a gate halfway through the second run before she returned to finish the race in 29th place.
“I made a huge mistake,” Riesch said. “I actually went out and I just skied on to get at least some points. You never know what’s going on in the end.”
She got two points while Vonn collected 60 for her third place.
“Today, it’s a very bad day for me,” Riesch said. “I try to concentrate on tomorrow and do it better.”
A slalom is scheduled at the northern Czech resort for Saturday before the women’s circuit moves to Lenzerheide, Switzerland for the March 16-20 World Cup finals.
